I’ve written about Korean girl group Rainbow before. After their disappointing debut single — “Gossip Girl,” they came back strong and won many fans (including myself) with “A” (I still feel the lifting-the-shirt dance is lame).
Now they are back with a new single called “Mach”:
Why the song is named after a measure of speed I’ll never know (until I learn Korean). But who cares. It’s a great follow-up release and I’m now really starting to pay attention to Rainbow. I still don’t know their names and could care less for their sexed-up image.
As long as they come out with good singles like this, I’ll be eagerly awaiting Rainbow’s next release.
I just hope they hire better choreographers from now on.
Since our flight was at 11:35pm (24/09/2010), we decided to leave directly from office and being a Friday evening, we had plans to leave earlier than usual. We checked the timings for the Vaayu Vajra airport shuttle buses & planned on taking bus number 8 or 8A in front of our offices on Sarjapur Road.
After just missing BIAL 8, we got BIAL 8A at around 5:35pm and made our way to Devanahalli. The ticket cost Rs. 180 (per person) and the journey took 2 hours. Once we reached Bangalore International Airport, it began to drizzle. We made our way in and then sat waiting for the Tiger Airways terminal to open.
Once the terminal did open, we were kind of surprised to see our boarding passes to be ones from Air India! Puzzled whether we were on the right flight or not, we did joke about how cheap an airline Tiger Airways was that they used leftover Air India boarding passes. 🙂
Since we were early, we had plenty of time to kill at the airport. We checked out the duty free, had a snack from the expensive options at BIAL and then tried going online using the free wi-fi… which didn’t work. Thankfully, I had my TATA Indicom Photon thumb drive and so I went online to do some more research on places we planned on seeing in Singapore, where to eat and what not.
It was also raining heavily outside but our flight wasn’t delayed by much nor was it cancelled, which was good news. By 11:35pm, we were in our seats. Now, we knew Tiger Airways was a budget carrier and wasn’t expecting much.
And it wasn’t much.
Seats were quite old and looked untidy, some push-back buttons wouldn’t work but hey… we reminded ourselves that we only paid around Rs. 4,500 ($100/€74) for this one way direct flight to Singapore. So we smiled to ourselves and sat back.
We were also quite hungry by this time and waited for the (paid) meals to be served. Though they had a menu with a few notable hot meal options, by the time the air hostesses arrived at our row we were only left with 2 options. In vegetarian – chana (chick peas) curry and rice and in non-veg – beef stew and bun. Since we were quite famished, we asked for both.
Ramesh, the vegetarian in our group, said it wasn’t very good; costs SGD6 (Rs. 200)The beef stew was quite good. But it came with only 1 bun which was a little too less for so much stew; costs SGD8 or SGD10 (Rs. 350) with a drinkIn my quest to try things I’ve never tasted before, I chose this drink. It was okay.
We avoided eating a complete meal at the Kingfisher Lounge at the airport because of how expensive it is but after having shelled out Rs. 500+ for the above food, it made better sense to eat from the airport itself before boarding the flight.
Anyway, our flight would land in 2 hours time and we thought about grabbing a bite at Changi Airport.
Yeah, about that.
When we landed, we did land at ‘Changi,’ but just like being told you would arrive at the pearly gates of heaven — and then take a swift left turn into hell, we actually disembarked at the budget terminal of Changi Airport. Okay it wasn’t hell or anything but it wasn’t much to write about either.
Basically a big warehouse turned airport terminal, the budget terminal at Changi had just about enough counters to cater to us “cheap” travellers. I was disappointed I couldn’t see one of the best airports in Asia but once again: Rs. 4,500… direct… we reached Singapore, safe and on-time.
We made our way out of the budget terminal and headed for the free shuttle bus to the main terminal to avail the MRT into the city.
Just past 7am, it was still dark at 6am
We boarded the bus and got down at Terminal 2…
… which obviously didn’t look like a warehouse.
We bought our MRT cards which cost SGD12 (Rs. 400/US$9) — SGD5 for the card and the remaining is credit — which is SGD7 (if you are that bad at math).
The Singapore Expo convention and exhibition center
We knew we had to switch trains at Tanah Merah station which is an interchange (we studied the MRT map during our research).
If you were wondering why Singapore is so clean (SGD1000 = Rs. 35000)(Taken on the Nokia E72)
We got down at Victoria station and walked straight towards the Bugis station (our hostel was in between the two). After asking a few passersby for directions, we walked past a blue mosque (which was a given landmark) and arrived at Jalan Kubor (‘jalan’ means ‘road’).
The main road is Victoria Street
We were staying at ABC Backpackers Hostel, a conveniently located and affordable hostel serving the essentials as far as we were concerned – great location, breakfast, internet, clean beds and clean bathrooms.
The hostel is on the extreme left
How much did it cost us? We booked in May, and for the F1 weekend it cost us Rs. 5200 ($116/€84). That’s for 3 people in a private room for 3 days and 2 nights in the heart of the city (pretty much) — around Rs. 1700 ($38/€27) per person for 2 nights at ABC Hostel.
We couldn’t check in to our room as it wasn’t available yet. So we kept our bags on the shelf rack, freshened up, had breakfast and then stepped out so as not to waste any time.
We first thought of heading to Sim Lim Square and then Little India, so after getting some directions, made our way down Victoria Street.
This was a fish pond at the Raffles Hospital
We took a right and stepped in to a convenience store to try and take a local SIM.
The black building is La Salle College of Arts Singapore
After getting our prepaid SIMs, we tried finding Sim Lim Square — Singapore’s famous electronics mall.
We did find it but given it was still 10am, most shops were yet to open. So we made our way to Little India instead.
Prepping up for Diwali celebrations
Sri Veeramakaliamman temple in Little India
We didn’t have the time to take up their challenge
We stopped by the famous Mustafa Centre shopping complex (which is open 24 hours) to see what they had on offer. Mustafa sells just about everything, from electronics to clothing and also houses a supermarket and a pharmacy. But we did find quite a lot of fake goods — mostly shoes — being sold at exorbitantly high prices. The Nikes were all wrapped in plastic and sorted based on size, and one look at them gave away their faux pas. Appalling how this “famous” store was getting away with fooling their customers.
After half-an-hour or so, and after checking from basement to the top floors, we left without buying anything.
And with that, Little India was done.
I wasn’t very happy with the photos I took. Granted the skies were grey but I never really had a chance to wait and click, it was all hurried. A lot of times I had to play catch-up as my friends would be ahead of me.
But we had to move on. Ramesh had to go pick up his F1 pass and we still had things to buy.
So we headed to the Farrer Park MRT station which is one of the two MRT stations that connect Little India.
My friend Loi feeling the need to cool his eyes in an underground station
The ticket collection point was the Swissotel The Stamford hotel which is attached to the mall.
My friend Ramesh with his ‘ticket’
Ramesh bought the Premier Walkabout ticket which cost him around Rs. 10,000. The ‘ticket’ is actually three badges (one for each day) and comes in a nice framed box, just so you can remind yourself how expensive it is to witness a Formula 1 event live.
Cafe Swiss at the Swissotel The Stamford
After collecting the ticket, we stepped out.
It began to rain at this point
We checked out the official merchandise store, which had apparel from all the major racing teams — all of which was very, very expensive. Like Rs. 3000-plus for a Ferrari t-shirt and such.
We also noticed Funan IT Mall, the other major electronics shopping destination, right ahead of us. So we went there next.
We passed by St. Andrews cathedral
Unlike Sim Lim Square, Funan is newer and lot more posh. That is not to say everything is a lot more expensive here, look around and you’re sure to find a lot good deals.
We had noted down a few good stores in Funan IT Mall, so we first went to TK Photo. I was in the market for a good tripod, an intervelometer and Ramesh wanted to pick up a Kata camera bag. Ramesh found what he wanted but I was spoilt by choice and realized I needed to do a bit more research before I could decide which model to go in for.
After TK Photo, we checked out a few more stores before heading up to the food court for lunch.
Lunch, for me and Loi at least. ‘The vegetarian’ didn’t find anything up here.The food court had mostly Chinese and local favourites
When we were done with our lunch, ‘the vegetarian’ had to go down to Subway to have his. This gave me some time to check out some more shops on the higher floors.
The first thing that caught my eye was a window full of Totoro plush toys!
The store had many more inside.
The grey-haired guy on the extreme right is the owner
I spoke to the owner who told me he has his sources in Japan for the goods and makes the pilgrimage to nerd-heaven quite often.
From Final Fantasy potions and collectibles to Metal Gear Solid figurines, this store had it all
If you love anime and video games, you’ll find a lot of stores catering to your geekdom on the top most floors of Funan IT mall.
This store was drawing a lot of peopleThen again, Street Fighter matches never fail to pull in a crowd
I then went down to John 3:16 Photo Supplies, a photography store I heard was one of the best in Singapore. It was quite busy and the guy running the place seemed like a really cool guy to talk to. He had a lot of the things I was planning on buying. But, my friends call and said they were done.
So I left, disappointed I couldn’t spend more time there. Actually, I was disappointed I could spend lot more time in Funan which seemed a lot better than Sim Lim Square.
Yes, Funan DigitalLife mall is a newer compared to Sim Lim Square but don’t assume it’s more expensive. It’s also managed by Capital Land, the Singapore-based real estate major that owns pretty much all the biggest malls in Singapore and other venues like Clarke Quay. So you’re not going to find a whole lot of grey market dealers like you would in Sim Lim Square.
After I caught up with my friends, we made our way back. We had yet to check in to our rooms.
It was still raining
Once we got back to ABC Hostel, we checked in to our private room which was cosy and clean enough for us to crash and trash with our luggage.
While we rested, Ramesh got ready to begin his F1 experience. Me & Loi didn’t have a lot of day left so we made our way out again.
This time, I suggested we just walk and check out our surroundings.
We were staying in the Kampong Glam neighbourhoodYou’ll find a lot of Arab, Indian and Persian eateries hereWe walked through the Malay Heritage Centre
We took a left off the main road after we asked a traffic policeman how to get to the marina, and walked across the bridge just to see where it would take us.
Ultimately we hit a dead end… and the whole section was blocked off for F1 events. So we walked back.
After walking by some impressive office buildings (which we were later asked not to photograph by the security personnel) we headed towards Suntec City.
You could see the races happening in the distance from up here
Though not new, Suntec City is a major real estate venture comprising of one of Singapore’s biggest malls (even today), several high-rise office towers and a huge convention and exhibition centre.
The only ‘race’ us mortals had a proper glimpse ofSuntec City also houses the ‘Fountain of Wealth’
Which comes on and lights up once completely dark
We walked out of Suntec City by this point still in search of the MRT station.
The F1 track passes through this stretch… so if you want to be this close to the track, stay at Marina Mandarin HotelThe path was blocked for pedestrians
Realizing we were nowhere near the MRT, we headed back into Suntec City Mall.
We sat down for evening tea at this awesome-looking food court.
Felt very Hogwarts-ish (Oh, those are not real books by the way)Tempted… but had to wait until dinner time
Once we did find City Hall MRT, we got down at Clarke Quay station to head to Singapore river where we planned to take the river cruise by boat.
Some rally being held at a park
After a bit of walking and asking around, we reached Singapore river.
Panorama comprised of 8 shots
The race was happening in the distance and one could hear the deafening sound of the engines. They were so loud (and so good) that I had to call up my friend back in India to give him the experience! (video coming soon)
We walked towards the bridge where lots of people were trying to catch a glimpse of the cars zipping past.
We got to the other side to get to the ticket counter for the River Cruise.
Panorama comprised of 6 shotsTickets for the boat ride cost SGD15 (Rs. 500/US$11/€8)Our rideThe ride would take us down the river and up into the marina
We’d pass a lot of of eateries, bars and clubs
It’s only after getting on this boat did I realize how much there was to Clarke Quay. I know the photos may not show much (video coming later) but the number of restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs are just too many to mention. It’s no wonder Clarke Quay area is the night hotspot in Singapore.
The boat then took a turn and made its way back towards the marina.
The stunning Marina Bay Sands Casino and Hotel in the backgroundSingapore’s famous Merlion statueWe were finally out in the marinaThe Esplanade concert hallsPretty sure the guys behind Yas Hotel saw this and went: “We want that, but better!”Singapore Flyer — the tallest one in the worldAnd finally, the $5 billion Marina Bay Sands Casino & Hotel
I had the look of sheer disappointment at this point. Not that the building was ugly or anything. Just 2 nights ago, my favourite trance outfit Above & Beyond performed here, more specifically at the Avalon club — on top of those three towers — and I missed it because I only heard about it that prior weekend. I seriously considered preponing my flight to arrive in Singapore earlier just to see them at such an awesome venue! But the pains of cancelling and re-scheduling a flight at such short notice, that too with Tiger Airways’ non-existent customer support in India made me drop it. It wasn’t just Above & Beyond. Flo Rida, Steve Aoki, The Chemical Brothers, with many more and the ticket for one night was just Rs. 3k.
Sigh 🙁
Anyway, back to the photos…
It was time to head back
Clouds above Singapore were lit thanks to all the skyscrapersThe boat dropped us back to same pick-up point
There are three pick-up points (& ticket counters) for the river cruise along Singapore river and you can take mine and Loi’s word for it — taking the cruise at night is a must-do when in Singapore!
Back on land, it was time to head to Chinatown for dinner.
Chinatown wasn’t far from Clarke Quay.
The entrance to ChinatownSingapore Lantern Festival 2010 was on at this time
We straightaway headed to the ‘food street’ as we were hungry and thirsty!
Scores of hawkers & restaurants on either side, we finally sat down and first, ordered some chilled beers.
We placed our orders from multiple vendors.
Pork noodle soup & barbecued tiger prawns; finished off with some beef fried rice
It was around 11pm by the time we were done. We could have explored more of Chinatown but we were tired as hell, so we decided to head back ‘home’.
This was on display near one of the pedestrian over bridgesAnd I wasn’t the only amateur photographer there
We took the MRT from Chinatown and got back to Kampong Glam.
The nightlife was still buzzing in our areaSultan Mosque, the largest mosque in Singapore
Once back in the room and a quick hot shower later, I hit the sack. Recalling how much we covered on just our first day, it was a good, albeit a very tiring start to our trip.
I wasn’t thoroughly pleased with all the photos I took today. A lot of them came out blurry which made me want to pick up a good tripod all the more a bigger priority.
Regardless, this was day 1. 155 images (used out of 360 taken), slightly over 3000 words and more than a week to finish. Trying to complete this was as tiring as the day itself.
Now only 9 more days and 3600 more photos to go through.
I’ll upload the videos later.
I’m too tired…
P.S: If anyone is interested in what Ramesh saw at the F1 track on day 1, check out this post.
I know I haven’t posted anything new in over a week, but that’s because I was travelling. This time, it was a 10 day trip to Singapore and Malaysia – both first time visits for me.
While the next few posts are going to document what I saw and feature some of the 3,900+ photos I took, I thought I’d make a post first on how much planning and research went into this trip, which itself was a process I enjoyed.
When I got back from my Thailand trip last year, the friends I travelled with in India in the past said we should do an international trip. Ramesh, the gearhead of the group said he would like to go for the Malaysian Formula 1, but this was in March. As it was too soon – and I still had my credit card dues to clear – I said I couldn’t do it.
So I suggested we plan for the Singapore F1 instead, to be held in September. This would give us a good 6 months to prepare. We soon figured there wouldn’t be much to see in Singapore and since we were going all the way there, we might as well see another destination as well. Hong Kong was in consideration but given how expensive the city was, we chose Malaysia instead.
First up was booking our flights. We set the dates for Formula 1 weekend, and since we figured it was going to a busy period, we decided to book early.
We were going to do this trip on a budget and since it was only going to be a one way journey to Singapore, flying Singapore Airlines was out of the question as the one-way fares were too high. We instead opted for the budget carrier Tiger Airways. I got my one way ticket for around Rs. 4,500 (US$101/€73) when booked late March and this was for direct flight which leaves Bangalore at 11:30pm and arrives at Singapore at 6:30am. Seemed convenient to us.
We initially wanted to fly straight from Singapore to Langkawi but unfortunately, tickets were sold out. So we decided to fly to Penang instead and then take a ferry from Penang to Langkawi.
From Langkawi we would then fly to Kuala Lumpur. After spending a few days in Malaysia’s capital city, we would fly back to Bangalore via Air Asia. The return ticket cost me around Rs. 3,625 (US$82/€59) including a pre-booked meal, up-sized baggage limit (20kgs) and a selected seat.
Since we were going to be three people, we made our hotel reservations well in advance. Most of our rooms were booked using Hostels.com, hostelsworld.com and only the Langkawi booking was made using agoda.com. Just about every flight and stay booking was made months before our journey, saving us a lot of money and giving us enough time to plan our itinerary.
When calculating how much cash we needed to carry, we considered the entry fees, daily food expenses and the balance amount we’d have to pay at all the hotels we booked via hostels.com and hostelsworld.com (both only accept 10% of the amount at the time of booking and the remaining 90% have to be paid in cash on at the time of check in). I also decided that all large purchases would be made on the credit card, so in the end, all three of us converted around Rs. 20,000 in Singapore dollars, Malaysian Ringits and the rest in US dollars.
We also needed to plan our luggage and what all we were going to carry. The thing with budget carriers (at least in the case of both Tiger and Air Asia), you have to pay for check-in luggage. We paid for the minimum of 15kgs for our onward journey but opted for 20kgs for our return. We also planned it in such a way that we wouldn’t carry 3 different deodorants or shaving creams, thereby minimizing space used as much as possible. In fact, Loiyumba, the third friend on this journey had the least luggage (one backpack) while going since he said he wouldn’t be shopping much. Of course, I told him all that would change while coming back. 🙂
We knew this being our first trip – and due to time and money restrictions – we wouldn’t have been able to do everything. As for our planned itinerary, it went something like this:
Day 1 (Singapore)
Arrive at hostel 8am approx. – rest for some time – go to Sim Lim Square by 10am for camera equipment shopping – head to Little India – from Little India to Arab Street/Kampong Glam – then head to Geylang Serai – from Geylang, by sunset, head to city for River Cruise – watch the F1 pre-race show, head to Clark Quay for dinner
Day 2 (Singapore)
First head to Singapore Zoo – then check out Orchard Road, have lunch from the hawker centers – photo session at Merlion Park – check out Marina Bay/Raffles Hotel & Marina Bay Sands hotel – Chinatown, from where we’d have dinner
Day 3 (Singapore)
Pack up and keep things ready – head to Vivo City Mall, take monorail (SGD$3) to Sentosa – Sentosa cable car and other attractions – Jurong Bird Park – be at Changi airport by 6pm for flight to Penang
Day 3 (Penang)
Check in to hotel at 10pm and then head to Gurney Drive for dinner – buy ferry ticket to Langkawi (if still open)
Day 4 (Penang)
Buy ferry ticket to Langkawi – visit Kek Lok Si (largest Buddhist temple in South-East Asia) – Bukit Bendera, the tram ride up to hill-top – drive on Penang Bridge and then come back – head to Batu Ferrenghi till sunset – drive back to Gurney drive at night for dinner
Day 5 (Langkawi)
Go to Eagle Square as it is in Kuah, where the ferry docks – head to hotel and check in – post lunch, try and rent bikes to go to Gunung Raya, the Langkawi Sky Bridge
Day 6 (Langkawi)
Island-hopping tour – drive around post lunch – hit the beach and relax
Day 7 (Kuala Lumpur)
Catch morning flight to Kuala Lampur – check in by noon – check out Bukit Bintang area – head to KL tower in the evening to get a view of Petronas and the city lit up – China Town for dinner
Day 8 (Kuala Lumpur)
Wait in line for Petronas Towers tickets at 7am – depending on when our time slot is, plan the rest of the day – visit Batu Caves – if there is time, check out National Mosque, Masjid Negara
Day 9 (Kuala Lumpur)
Shopping
Day 10(Kuala Lumpur)
Shopping – depart for airport by noon
Well, that was what we thought of doing. But did we accomplish all the above? For that, tune in to my blog the next few weeks 🙂
Now they are back with a new single called “Mach”:
